As usual most of us met at Oma/Opas house the afternoon of Christmas.  This year we had Diana.  Also we were missing Oma & Opa.  This year Opa met Oma in Heaven.  We will miss them a lot.  Thanks to the Gospel we will all be with them some day.

Downtown Seattle

 One of the good things that came out of the bad situation is that Diana, the oldest sibling was able to come to town.  She lives with her husband Frank Tove's in Guam.  We took her to Seattle.  It's always fun going to downtown.  Here we are at Pikes Place Market & they have a GUM WALL.  It was interesting.  Our daughter wanted to put her gum there, leave her mark.

Our son-in-law  Landi loves going there.  They have food from all over the world there.  He feels right at home eating food from Albania and region.  Our daughter-in-law Celsie loved the city, you can't blame here, it's beautiful!!!!  We walked the piers.  Pam who had eerends to do met us there. 

Christmas 2012

Since 1995, 5 siblings have been living in the Seattle area.  Our Christmas time were a time we charished together.  For the 1st time since then we had to spen it without Oma, Opa, & Grandma.  They were missed by all.  We now have Adrian there son read the Christmas story that was done by Opa.  They were very proud of their family & loved to be with them.

Instead of having the family party on Christmas Eve, we had it the night before.  There were kids who had to leave.  Some kids had to get back home.  We had a very good time, fun games, great food.

Can Cun again

Just when we got back from Can Cun again we brought other members of the machine with us.  We you can tell love going to Mexico.  We took them to Explor.  Nothing like going on a zip line that started on a tower 72 meters high!  We rode quads, Senates, canoes.  The Zip lines were fun, all 16.  We stayed at the Grand Velas.  It was ok.  I think we will go back to the Barcelo.  After 6 years of not going to Mexico, we went 2 times in 4 months.  We had Pam, myself, Jeff and Val, Bob and Karen. 

Goodbye Opa

Today I wood like to announce the passing of our Opa.  Adrianu VanderHoeven passed away at our home to return to our Heavenly Father & to be reunited with Oma.  We will miss hime greatly.  Our Oma died in April of 2005. 

Mexico again

 Recently at work Pam won the Presidents Award.  A trip to Can-Cun came with it.  We had an all expense paid trip to a swanky Hotel.  It's called the Grand Velas.  As you can see the beach was great.  The weather was very nice.  Warm in the days & cool at night. 

 I went to Play-Del-Carmon to walk around the town.  I can't just can't hang around the pool all day.  I took a taxi cause Pam doesn't like the idea of the bus.  It is unsafe.

 I went on a Quad ride.  It's a lot more fun in Mexico than in the United States.  We were able to go real fast.  I think about 30-40 mph.  I was the only one who signed up for the course.  It was a blast.

Pam & went to a new place called EXPLOR.  It was a hoot!  They have 15-17 zip lines.  I did 6.  Quading, swimming, eating.  What wise do you want? 
    Of course since we were there with her co-workers, we spent some time with them.  We had a welcoming get together at first.  Then a going home one.  We got together with some of them in between those times & had fun.  We had only 1 dislike.  The fancy food.  We'll just stick to Stake & Potatoes!

Matthews graduation

I know this isn't a private blog for the Sirrines.  We forgot the password & stuff so I'm going to do some Sirrine stuff here also.  Matthew Graduated from College this year.  He graduated from BYU- Provo.  He follows a long line of graduates in the Vander Hoeven clan.  Please use the comment form if I leave someone out.  There is Linda & Mario. Jennifer & her Husband will be soon.  There is Jamie & Landi.  There is Adrian & his wife Laura.  Chris has a AA.  So I hope I didn't miss anyone.  Brooks is one.  So, this family could be proud!!

The Hood!

 The Atrium became our neighborhood.  Ady staked the claimed on behalf of the family.  To bad we didn't have a family flag, a orange one at that to let people know it's ours.  There was entertainment also.  We had our favorite staff getting our drinks.  It was a meeting place also.  Paqm & I liked it cause our room was on that floor.  It also had the International Cafe there.  It had really good dessert, & lunch snacks there.

Party at the Atium

Some of us went to see the party at the Atrium.  They had music & dancing.  They tried to keep every one busy. 

 We spent some time dressed up.  Some people started doing the other option so they don't have to dress up.  Pam & I like dressing up.  It's the only time that we get the chance to dress up & go to dinner.  

 Sometimes we would go out & enjoy the outdoors.  Everyone looked really nice when they dressed up.  We only did it for dinner.  We had 2 formal, the rest was casual.

Cruise Director

To the left was our Cruise Director.  Her name was Lisa Ball.  We had her on the Ruby.  I guess she was following us.  She does a good job.  I guess they wanted to make sure we had a rock en time!!

Beaches

 We spent a lot of time on the beaches.  They are soooo beautiful in the Carribean.  I can understand why the Europeans fell in love with that area when they came upon it.  We rented a van to take ourselves to wherever we want.   We spent 3 days on shore, 3 days at sea.  We went to Princess Cays, Aruba, & Curacao.

Dance party on our cruise

 Like when we were on the Ruby, the Crown had a party on deck that involved dancing.  Most everyone had fun dancing.  This is where Pam & I are different, I don't dance, she likes to. 

Here are the ones who danced the night away. 

Cruise 2012 P. 3

 One of the things that we did was Karaoke.  I loved when Brian went up cause he loved it.  I don't have a photo of him.  I have one of him on the last cruise.  This is Pam, Karen, & Kirsten singing.  They did really good.  Ady sang Louis Armstrong, twice! 

 We spent a lot of time in Club Fusion.  Bob won I think $350.  Go Bob!  We had a lot of activities their in that club.  Between the 2 Cruise's it was like our home.

2012 cruise P 2

 Well, here we are on Princess Cays.  This is the 3rd time for Pam & I.  Bob & Karen had the most time there but I don't know how many times.  It's one of the best days.  There are lots of food, snorkeling.

CRUISE 2012

 The cruise this time was on the Crown Princess.  It's a sister ship of the Ruby that we were on lst cruise.  It had a few modifications.   On this cruise was Pam, myself, Bob, Karen, Ady, Kirsten, Christian, Her sister-in-law Shelley & Mary.  The Cruise was from the 28th of Jan.-5th of Feb.

Pam, myself, Mary along with the Vander Hoevens left Seattle on the 27th on Continental.  We landed at Houston.  We had about 45 minutes till we left for Miami.  We had a hotel and it was a Marriott on the beach.  It is fun to just check out the sights before you go on a cruise.  We don't like to travel the day we depart.  There can be to many problems.  It's also odd to see the sun set and not over the beach.  Wait for part 2.

Christmas this year came & gone like a flash.  It seems like it comes faster every passing year.  It also gets more crowded every year.  Unfortunately not every one was able to make it.  Danial Walsh got off his mission in time for this years party on Christmas Eve at the Lutz's.  There were the same traditions & we made some changes to other traditions. 

• The white elephant that we do every year was changed to something different.  Linda ran it.  We picked the presents & instead of  taking turns picking we circled around the living room, thru the dinning room, thru the kitchen, then thru the entry hall back to the living room.  Linda read the story, presents changed & then we openned them up.  we sang the traditional Silent Night in the 8-10 different lanquages.  That is always fun to listen to.  We started at 6:30, we all were able to get home at a good hour.  Jacki had their baby the 23rd so needless to say the Keanen family couldn't make it.  Chris & cat couldn't come either.  We had a lot of fun.